Never a dull moment

It has been quite the month of January for us. The week that Aidan started back to school we moved to a new house. It was only a 7 mile move, but you still have to take everything with you. Which concerned Aidan a bit. He kept asking about particular items and if we were taking those items with us. Blanket statements like "we are taking everything" just don't work for a inquisitive 6 year old.

The move was uneventful. Except that the weekend we chose to move happened to be one of the coldest weekends we've had in about 6 years. I spent most of my time closing the front door.

The excitement came after the move. The dryer had not been drying the clothes in one cycle so I had been cleaning out every hose attached to the dryer but it still wasn't working right. I decided the vent on the roof must be clogged. Never one to let someone else do what I can do myself, I climbed on the roof during Asher's nap time to investigate. Sure enough, several inches of lint was clogging the vent so I cleaned it out. I also cleaned out a few gutters and replaced a few gutter covers while I was up there. I was coming down the ladder and the thought did cross my mind as to what I would do if the ladder came out from under me. I was forming a plan as I put my other foot on the step and about that time, the ladder slid out from under me. It happened so fast that a plan would not have mattered. I landed face down on the tile patio. I am fine, no broken bones or sprained muscles but I have been sore for the past few days.

Asher slept right through it and the dog was no help at all. He watched from afar but he is no Lassie. If I had knocked myself out from the fall I'm pretty sure he would not have run for help.

Needless to say I will not be on the roof anytime soon and I will make sure to have someone holding the ladder next time I am on one. Of course, the Dish Network installer is here today and he's got a really long ladder and I do have a light that needs replacing...

How we spent the last day of Christmas vacation...

Yesterday(Sunday) didn't start off really well. When the alarm went off I could not believe how tired I was so I hit the snooze and somehow managed to turn the alarm off. We ended up sleeping too late for church, only for me to discover later that my clock was set 2 hours fast. So the alarm actually went off at 4:30, not 6:30. No wonder I was still so tired. Now, I can't say exactly who messed with the clock but I have my suspicions, and it wasn't Aidan or Derek. Of course the day really got exciting when Asher came to me and said "popcorn nose, popcorn nose" I thought he was referring to the day before when he had shoved a piece of popcorn up his nose (which Derek was able to pull out with the tweezers) but no, Asher was letting me know he had done it again. After looking up his nose with a book light, we were able to see that this time it was a kernel and there was no getting it out with tweezers. We tried a few things, getting him to blow really hard, we had him smell pepper which did actually produce a few sneezes but no popcorn kernel. As I was on the phone with our pediatrician's office, Derek and Asher were on their way. Unfortunately, the doctor had already left the office so Derek headed to the Children's hospital office on our side of town. After waiting for a little over an hour(in a very nice waiting room, there was practically an indoor playground for the kids and even some riding toys) they were ushered into a room with no toys, which was not so easy for Asher. Or Derek, for that matter. When Derek called to see where I was(in route after dropping Aidan at the Weaver's) Asher was screaming in the background, he had a bit of a meltdown. Needless to say the doctor was unsuccessful(after 2 nasal bulbs of water shot through the opposite nostril, air blown through the opposite nostril, a suction hose, and a bit of digging around) we were sent to Children's hospital downtown to meet an ENT. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. There was valet parking and we didn't have to sit in the waiting room long since the doctor was expecting us. And it took him 5 seconds to get the kernel out. He used a little tool that spread Asher's nostril open so he could see better and then he used another tool that looked a lot like a knitting needle to rake the kernel out. Quite the night, oh, we also discovered that Asher has 2 ear infections in the process. At least that saved me another trip to the doctor today.

I do not have any pictures of the experience, but we do still have the corn kernel as a little token....

A Wii Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas at the Weaver household. I ate way too much, in fact, I am still eating way too much. A dear friend from Alex City made me a red velvet cake that is to die for and I'm not wasting a single bite! Aidan and Asher have reaped the rewards of being good this year and enjoying their presents. Aidan got Star Wars stuff, board games and the Wii while Asher racked up more trains, cars and clothes. Thanks to all the Indiana relatives for the presents. I wish I could tell you that I know exactly who gave what but once the first present was opened and Asher figured out what was going on, it was a free for all. I was all we could do to pry gifts away from him that weren't meant to be opened yet.

My nephew, Spencer, is spending a few days with us. We went bowling yesterday. Which was fun for about 10 minutes. It would have been great if we had the entire rink to ourselves but alas, it was not so. Asher did not quite grasp the idea of "wait your turn" and "only throw the ball down our lane". Luckily, Pops was only a phone call away. After they left, they returned because Asher was not happy to be going with Pops. He bowled a few more minutes but I had to send him packing after he went head first into the gutter. Maybe we'll try again in a few months.

I hope you have a safe New Years and the Weaver family wishes you many blessings for 2009!

Asher closeup.

Aidan and Avery jumping logs on Outdoor Adventure,
I'm not sure why they are shirtless.

Derek and his new guitar.

Aidan in disguise.

Asher's stacking skills

Asher has some skills, I'm not sure how useful this will be in real life but it's pretty funny for now. He also stacked lincoln log canisters at Namaw and Pop's house not long before this picture was taken. And yes, those are mac and cheese boxes. A favorite at our house.





Going for a 5th box didn't work out so well.

This is Asher and Aidan at my mom's. Where else can you ride a bike in the house but at Nan's?

Pancake Express

Being two must be so much fun. And also hanging out in your big brother's room while he is at school.

Yes, those are pancakes.


Poor baby Jesus.

Weekend update

We had a pretty busy weekend, Christmas party, Derek teaching Aidan's Sunday School class, it was our turn to help in the nursery at church, birthday party, choir performance at church followed by a dinner for choir members and their families, and then the usual Sunday night "get ready for school tomorrow stuff". It was a great weekend but a whirlwind. Aidan had basketball practice Monday night and then this morning I went to Aidan's class to help out with their dress rehearsal for the Nativity play. There is nothing like helping 18 six year-olds get into costumes in a room that shares the bathroom with the room next door(which also has 18 six year-olds trying to get into their costumes). Fun times. Needless to say it happened and the rehearsal was uneventful. Except for the wise man that kept blowing into the microphone during one of the songs. The adults kept looking around wondering if it was thundering or maybe someone was moving a large piece of furniture, but nope the culprit was a wise man. The teacher spoke with him afterwards so maybe the strange noises can be avoided the night of the performance. We'll see...

Aidan in his Roman soldier costume

Aidan(he will not wear tennis shoes for the performance!) and Avery(the innkeeper)

Family pic at church

Asher hiding out under the table at the choir dinner

Wow! Two days in a row!!!

Asher is in bed, Aidan is spending the night with a friend and I've been wrapping presents while watching the movie Hancock and I thought I would take a few minutes to blog. Trying to get back in the habit. Hmmm, what happened today. Aidan had a 2 hour school delay(the threat of snow is enough to send Alabama schools into a tailspin; and no, we did not have any snow), so it was a very relaxed morning, Asher spent the night last night with Namaw and Pops so it was also a quiet morning, after I dropped Aidan off at school I finished up my Christmas shopping, got a little bit of painting done and it was time to get Asher from the Weaver's and then get Aidan and his buddy Avery from school(they get out early on Fridays). Wow, pretty exciting day so far huh?

The boys wanted to go see our friend Seth who runs Ed's Pet World and has a secret stash of Star Wars toys dating back to the early 80's. His office(which is easily 20ft X 15ft) is wall to wall Star Wars, and I mean wall to wall, he has figures(still in boxes) tacked to every inch of wall space. You name it, he's got it. Really, try me on this one, you name a Star Wars memorabilia and I'm pretty sure he has it, I'll even double check with him. Anyway, this is a favorite place to visit for the boys. Not to mention they get to see all the animals at the pet store. The prairie dog was out and about today so that was a treat, they have 3 turtles that roam the store so it's always fun to try and find them, we only found the big one today and he was asleep. They have a talking parrot that was yelling at the turtle, he also does a fantastic sound effect of a coke bottle opening and fizzing, good stuff. After our trip to the pet store we stopped by a local bakery for cookies so all in all, a pretty good day. My favorite was Aidan's rendition of the Ed's Pet World theme song. It goes like this "Come on down to ....Ed's Pet World....you'll find(fill in with whatever animal) at Ed's Pet World" but in Aidan's version he was filling in with random things, he started off with animals that we actually saw, then "sleeping turtles", "talking parrots", then he filled in with "Avery Anderson", and Avery laughed so hard I thought he would hack up a lung. Maybe you had to be there....

I've posted a few pics of our very own Army of Misfit Toys, thanks to Asher. He saw them all posed on the counter and pointed and started laughing. He has no remorse. One of the nutcracker's head has been glued back on already but I used too much gorilla glue and it oozed out the sides so it looks like his brains are running out. The Santa nutcracker holding the Christmas tree has had his arm and Christmas tree glued back on, all the others I will get to eventually. The other picture is Aidan's elf. He has had this elf for a few years, I don't completely understand the point. Something like the elf is sent by Santa to check up and make sure Aidan has been good. The elf does a few mischievous things around the house every now and then, or so is the story I got from friends who bought these things for their kids. I did not buy the elf, it was a gift(actually, the face on the thing kind of creeps me out). The latest escapade was the elf rolled Aidan's room(rolled it with toilet paper in case you are wondering what I was talking about, is that only a southern thing that bored teenagers do to people's yards?) Aidan was pretty surprised to wake up and find toilet paper strewn around his room.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and have a great weekend!



Front row: Train missing back wheel, rock em sock em robots ornament missing both robot heads, green nutcracker missing head and beard, bird ornament missing leg
Back row: Moose propped on torn legs, yellow striped hat nutcracker missing a foot, navy and gold nutcracker has the head glued back on that oozed glue, brown nutcracker missing side of hat and the stick is not attached to the hand, tall green and red nutcracker missing hat, Santa nutcracker had arm and Christmas tree re-attached. All this happened since the Sunday after Thanksgiving, how many days till Christmas???